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etymology - Why are not "infamous" and "inflammable" the opposite of "famous" and "flammable"?


Why are not infamous and inflammable the opposite of famous and flammable, like incomplete, inactivity, inappropriate and so on?



Answer



The New Oxford American Dictionary I had on my Mac Mini (which was the third edition, last time I checked) reported the following definitions for in-:



in- 1
prefix
1. (added to adjectives) not: inanimate | intolerant.
2. (added to nouns) without; lacking: inadvertence | inappreciation.


in- 2
prefix in; into; toward; within: induce | influx | inborn.



Looking at the origin of infamous, and inflammable, I read the following:



infamous
ORIGIN late Middle English: from medieval Latin infamosus, from Latin infamis (based on fama 'fame').




inflammable
ORIGIN early 17th century: from French, or from Latin inflammare (see inflame).



In both the cases, the words are not built adding the prefix in- to existing words.


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